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Sunday, November 8, 2015

Thoughts on an OSR "Dragonstar" Type Campaign - and Other Random Thoughts of a Dangerous Type

I've got training this week, so instead of being a vampire an working when the sun is down I'll be in training at 7am tomorrow. My mind is bouncing around, and lack of sleep this morning after last night's overnight shift has left me a little punch drunk. But hey, the Jets AND the Giants both won today. Football is alive and well in NYC :)

Anyhow, back in the D20 era, when I didn't game but I did collect gaming books, Dragonstar was a setting that really caught my eye and sparked my imagination. On the surface, it seemed similar to Spelljammer, but it was much darker (Spelljammer always felt "campy" to me.) Hmmm, the other D20 era setting that got my imagination going was Midnight. Must be the idea of dark in my fantasy.

Tonight I stumbled across the Dragonstar SRD, which to be honest is really just the 3.0 SRD with some minor additions. Of course, the fluff is not open, so it's not included, but it did get me thinking - how hard would it to be to take one part S&W White Box, one part White Star, add in some dragons, borrow inspiration from Spelljammer, Calidar and Dragonstar, sprinkle the decay of a multi-world evil empire, distill it down with White Box sensibility and simplicity and cook it on the stove of creativity?

Yeah, not something I should even be thinking off with my current screwed up work hours. But wait! I've decided to run some of the comp time I've accumulated (and vacation time I've banked) to give myself a four day weekend every other week before I hand in my shield in the Spring. If I block out some creative time I may have something usable before I retire. With some work, it may even be usable by others too ;)

I think I'm going to bring a notebook to training tomorrow. 8 hrs of lectures by folks that don't and can't, so therefore they teach. I'll look attentive, taking notes and such while I'm really mapping out universe of White Dragon (or whatever it's going to be called - for now, it's code name "White Dragon".)

The secret to anything White Box is less is more. So I need to think big and execute small.

Alright, time for sleep. I have to be at work an hour before I'd normally be heading for home. Sleep won't come easy...

I played in a couple of Dragonstar games around when it first came out. The setting was fun. It might have just been the groups that I gamed with but they mostly felt like Traveller with fantasy elements & a 3.x mechanic. In one, I ran an Orc barbarian from a backwater world called Oerth and, in the other, I ran a female Half-Orc lounge singer (She was probably the most fun I've had running a bard.).

This is the kind of stuff I love to do. Unfortunately, my players don't really like to mix Sci-Fi with their D&D (nor do they really like to mix up the D&D status quo, for that matter). Otherwise this is what I would be running ALL OF THE TIME!

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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (thank you Kickstarter) (edit) BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and will soon have some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep shipping shortly in my grubby hands awaiting a review..

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls (and still waiting on dT&T to ship).

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 48, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)